Legends
by Cards
Summary: Becasue I know in one hundred years all that will remain is Stories
1. Default Chapter

So many people ask how I got Brooklyn. How could scrawny little, shit-for-brains, Spot Conlon get control of Brooklyn one street at a time? How the fuck is it possible?

I mean I look down into the waters of my river. Yeah My river. I own them. The street kids know it too. I look down into the waters and think "How the fuck?" I know I'm scrawny, my arms are like tooth picks. Maybe not so much now as when I was younger and my da used to tell me that if I was bad he'd break my arms or as he said "Snap those fucking tooth picks! How the hell do you live your so skinny? That bitch never feed you? OR what your too dumb to feed?" He did break my arm and left it to heal, badly. Now I can tell when its gunna rain from the ache. But I look at myself and wonder, just like everyone else "How the fuck?"

Maybe its my good looks. That's what some say. I sweet talked my way into it. I lay low and then while no one thinks the stupid boy with the pretty blue eyes is gunna do any thing I beat em. Some think I gain the leaders trust sleepen' wid em like a dirty whore. Ain't my style. I don't try to do that. I've heard tales that I would bed a leader and while fucking him I would shove a knife into him. I don't stop the tales like that. Keeps everyone cautious, and I'm a leader, so it's a good thing.

I listen to all the tales. The Legend that I am becoming I sit silently above the newsies in the warehouse. A warehouse that I found. I a shipping company owns it. But they use it about once a year. So for us on the docks all it takes is a little cash, or to send out a girl when the watchman comes along and we have a home. So I sit and watch them they hardly notice me, thinking me to be screwing someone in my room. Hell knows that if I chose I could have anyone of them, and more want me. But I don't care. I watch the Newsies and the dock workers as they play poker and black jack. The occasional game of rummy or marbles is brought up by either and ambitious or younger boy. I watch the girls laugh and flirt with the boys and from where I sit I can see the way that they lead the doting boys off. I'm a leader it pays to know what my boys are doing.

So I sit and watch, listening to the snippits of conversation. This is how I keep my throne on the dicks, how I keep the streets of Brooklyn safe for myself. Its simple really. All I do is the most basic thing. I know what's going on. I know who Cards slept with last night, I know that preacher is guiltily catching looks at the couples. I know what church each belongs to and whose skipping out on paying the nickel a night that I charge as hush money too the coppers on the beat around here. I'm not going to do anything about any of this. But it always helps to have information. It helps to know whose on your side and who thinks Jack Kelly is a better leader. Because when hints of a revolution start up you can smash it down.

So you wanna know why I'm the king of Brooklyn? Why I can walk on its streets unafraid? Because I learned how to lead the way I lead. Know everything. I sat from fire escapes watching the previous leader play marbles, heard him complain about a weak knee. Saw him draw his girl up tight against him and whisper in her ear. Then I would follow him to a bar where he would pay for a drink, then another then he would trick someone into buying him liquor when his change ran out. I learned what he did. Habits and the sort. I wasn't no one. 

Then I killed him. Took my cane to the back of that weak knee and blew it out. Pushed him into my river let the waters rid Brooklyn of its past leader. So I rule Brooklyn.'

I encourage the legends. Because I know it'll only be a little till some kid realizes how I do it and challenges me. And a little more until I get my scrawny ass whooped. So I let the kids talk about how I beat off a thousand men from the door. Let them talk about how I single handedly won the strike for Brooklyn. 

Because in a hundred years, all there will be is stories

Author's notes- LOOK I WROTE SOMETHING! Okay now I actually have an idea for more of this tell me if you want it.

Cards on: Silly putty I LOVE IT GIMME MORE!


	2. Coal Monster Watch where you Sleep

My grandma used to tell me all the time that if I was bad a coal monster would get me. She learned the tail from her mother because our family has been working in coal mines forever. But in New York we don't. Its just there isn't one to work at. So My da Delivers coal to peoples home and my Ma sews clothing all day.

Now me? Well I'm a Newsie. it's a good life and Ma sure does like that I bring extra cash home. But my story isn't about that so much. Its about coal. My nickname is Coal. Mainly because I grew up expecting to work with it. But I guess its not really an expectation. It's a curse.

It happened in Ireland. We lived in king County and almost everyone worked in the mines. They moved before I was born but I still think of it as "we". Anyway my Da worked in them and they used to keep him awake by telling him that a monster ate little boys who fell asleep when they should be doing their work. He was duly terrified and the story stayed in his mind until they left when he was 16.

He wasn't cursed. His Father was. You see his father wasn't supposed to leave the coal mines. He'd made a bargain with God. Said that if God saved his sister from the blight he'd work in the mines till his dying day. God saved the small girl and she lived a healthy life an d married a rich man. My grand da, he could have gone far, but he worked in the mines until he had enough to marry and he then raised a family always working on the mines. But then he was given the option to leave. He left.

He died soon after, pushed in front of a wagon. No one was around but we all know that he was pushed. Me Da thinks it was the Cave monster. I believe him, because its said grad da was sleeping on a post when he should have been working. My Uncle was killed when he was sleeping on the job as well. Nad my father has had some danm near misses. I'm to terrified to even sleep in most days.

My Ma tells me there is no curse, just me da's stories. Me granma tells me that I best be careful. So I am. She says Ma don't gotta worry, its just us in the line. I know what she means. Ma has fallen asleep at work before and nothing happened she tells us all the time we don't have to worry.

Me? I'm nine years old and terrified. I know that the monster will get me. Its why my names Coal. I'll work in the mines somewhere someday. I've gotta. Its that or my family always is doomed.

Till then I sell my papes and go to school, but really what do you need to know to work a coal mine. And school's like work. I fell asleep once and a felt this rush of cold air and I fell off the chair screaming.

So I hope I'll do okay. Can I really live with out sleeping too much?

Author's Notes: OHHH! CHAPTER TWO! -demands all Ohh and ahh- Yeah… I hope it holds up…

Cards on-Silly Putty- STILL WANT MORE!

Shout outs

Tabloid: I know isn't it amazing?

Keza: Well This is legend one

Raven: Well its not more Spot buut….

Angel: Gee thanks!


End file.
